Superhero in Training
by Barry Allen's Assistant
Summary: Barry Allen's adventures with an old friend from New York City who just discovers that she has strange abilities that are the result of the particle accelerator explosion.
1. Chapter 1

Barry Allen's eyes widened in surprise as he glanced past Detective Joe West's shoulder.

"Could you excuse me for a moment please?" He asked and quickly stood up not even waiting for a reply.

"Sure." Joe muttered and headed back to his desk which was piled with old case files.

"What're you doing here Yasmeen?" Barry was clearly shocked to see the sixteen year old girl standing in the lobby of the Central City Police Department. "I need to talk to you. It's kind of really urgent." Yasmeen's dark eyes were filled with worry.

"Sure, let's go to Jitters," Barry says and leads the way out of the CCPD.

Yasmeen Adam pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and straightened her hijab. She was sitting at a table near the wall and waiting nervously for Barry to come back with the lattes. Being back in Central City so soon felt a bit strange but the feeling wasn't entirely unwelcome. A bit strange was nothing compared to what she had experienced over the past few days. Barry was walking back towards the table with two steaming mugs in his hands.

"So what's up?" He seemed unsure and she realized that she had given no indication as to why exactly she was here.

"Do you remember that night that I was visiting and the particle accelerator from S.T.A.R Labs let off that wave of dark matter? Of course you do. You were struck with lightning caused by it and put into a coma for nine months." Yasmeen says this last part mostly to herself. "Were there any consequences to that accident? Like people with strange abilities or something?"

Barry sighs as he shakes his head. She sinks into her chair and taps her index finger on the table. "Something has happened to me and I can't explain it. I came to you because I know you'll be the least likely to freak out."

"Freak out about what?" He asks.

"This." Yasmeen picks up the metal spoon that is next to her coffee cup and wraps her hand in a fist around it. When she opens her hand the spoon now resembles a crumpled lump of foil.

Barry's facial expression betrays nothing and he hesitantly he opens his mouth. "This is gonna seem really strange but we need to go to S.T.A.R Labs."

She nods and stands up. "We'll take my car as seeing that you don't own one."

"Actually I've got a much faster way. Is your hijab pinned on firmly?"

Yasmeen looks at him quizzically. Barry motions for her to follow him and heads out of Jitters and to the back where the trashcans are. She wrinkles her nose in disgust.

"Yeah sorry about that but we need to be in a place where no one can see me," he awkwardly rubs his palms together, "Also I'm gonna have to carry you."

Before she even has time to process this statement Barry has scooped her up and is speeding toward S.T.A.R Labs.

"Do you even know what're you're doing?" Caitlin Snow asks Cisco Ramone sceptically.

"Of course I do," he replies but at that moment accidentally burns himself with the soldering iron. "Ouch!"

Caitlin smirks and goes back to checking her computer and analysing Barry's DNA results. They're like nothing she's seen before. Fortunately for her, Cisco and Dr Harrison Wells, when Barry Allen discovered his super-speed he didn't use it for selfish purposes and chose to help them capture all those who had been affected by the particle accelerator explosion. The metahumans, which was the name they had decided to call these villains, were being kept in the pipeline of the now destroyed particle accelerator. They had encountered a man who could turn himself into poisonous gas, a girl who could manipulate bees to act at her will and many other people with strange abilities and effects of the explosion but no one else who had wanted to help them.

Suddenly there is a gust of wind and all the papers that were placed in neat piles on Caitlin's desk are strewn all over the floor as well as her hair flying behind her.

"Felicity was right; we really do need to get some paperweights around here."

She looks away from the mess to Barry who is slowly setting down a girl who looks quite shocked.

"I may have skipped out the part where I have super-speed and there's a bunch of people with weird new abilities like mine." Barry says this to the girl in a rush and the words are muddled.

"Mr Allen who is this young lady?" Everyone turns to see Dr Harrison Wells making his way down the ramp and into the main room. He smoothly wheels in and looks expectantly at Barry.

"Uhh ... This is Yasmeen Adam. She's a friend from New York. She was visiting Central City the night the particle accelerator exploded."

Yasmeen is still looking around but she no longer looks shocked. "I've got a slight problem and now I'm pretty sure that it was caused by your particle accelerator." Her voice is icy and Barry wonders if super-strength was only a part of what she gained from the explosion.

"Would you mind illustrating this problem?" Dr Wells asks.

"I don't think that's a very good idea. Maybe she can just tell you?" Barry says.

Cisco looks at Yasmeen as though he already knows what she can do. Caitlin once again has a worried expression but honestly if this girl was going to harm anyone Cisco was certain that she would've done it already.

"I only discovered it a couple of days ago so I don't know how it works but if I run fast enough into a shadow I can use it as a form of transportation, it can take me back to the CCPD or back in time to, say a week ago. I can also lift and break _really_ heavy objects."

"You can time travel?" Cisco sounds really excited at the prospect of time travel.

"Yeah, I accidentally ran into a wall in the school courtyard and suddenly I was standing outside my best friend's house where I'd been about an hour earlier. He came outside and asked if I was ready to leave for school which is exactly what had happened earlier and within the hour I found myself in front of that same wall." Yasmeen explains.

"May I ask where exactly you were during the particle accelerator explosion?" Dr Wells asks as he wheels himself over to a computer.

"Standing in an alley, I was taking pictures for a portfolio project." Do you think the dim lighting of the alley had something to do with this?" Her tone with Wells is still untrusting but now curiosity creeps in.

"It is possible. With your permission I would like Caitlin to run some tests on you."

Yasmeen nods but she seems uneasy. Dr Wells smiles reassuringly and leaves the room.

"We can start now with monitoring your vitals." Caitlin is already gathering up the needed paperwork and is plugging in and switching on various machines.

"Can't we start tomorrow? She really doesn't need to be prodded at right now," Barry asks quietly.

Caitlin glances at Yasmeen and notices the vacant look on her face. "Wells hasn't told her directly but the changes that she's discovered are permanent and her life is about to turn upside down. The least I can do is let her feel normal for the next few hours," he says.

There is understanding in Caitlin's eyes and Barry walks over to Yasmeen. Maybe they can pick up Iris and go to the movies. Probably not as seeing that Yasmeen too is aspiring to become a journalist and they'll spend the whole night discussing which topics deserve the first page and what new conspiracies have come about in the last few months.

When they arrive back at Jitters however, they notice Iris and Joe's partner Eddie getting cosy and Barry awkwardly clears his throat.

"You should just tell her."

"That I'm in love with her? I somehow think that it won't go as well as it sounds in my head." He says dejectedly.

"Well we could go eat ourselves into oblivion. I mean fries and milkshakes are bound to make you forget what's currently going on."

"I can't get drunk and you can't drink so fries and milkshakes will do."

She smiles and they get into her car and head to the nearest Big Belly Burger store to drown their troubles.


	2. Chapter 2

The one thing that Yasmeen honestly missed about New York was its hotels. Central City hotels lacked a certain charm about them but after staying in the City Center for almost a week now she was comfortable with the area and its bustling roads.

She had been put on various machines at S.T.A.R. Labs but they still knew nothing about her new abilities. The very thought of having to go home and try to explain to her parents about all of this was gut wrenching. Apparently Iris didn't know about Barry's super-speed so it had been really tricky trying to explain what exactly Yasmeen was doing in Central City and why she and Barry seemed to disappear so often. Still it was a change from mundane life and Yasmeen welcomed it with open arms. Well most of the time.

"Is this really necessary?" Yasmeen asked as she looked at herself in the mirror, she had seven different coloured wires wound on her arms in an attempt to discover what allowed her to bend shadows. Caitlin smiled sympathetically.

"I'm sorry but we have no idea what this is or how to go about looking for it so we're gonna have to try _everything."_

Yasmeen sighed then pushed her hair out of her eyes and ran as fast as she could towards the long shadow produced from an enormous cardboard box that had been positioned in the middle of the room. Just as before she passed right through it but this time she ended up on the treadmill that Cisco had designed for Barry instead of the table that was covered with glass test tubes. That had been a mess of glass shards and dangerous liquid substances. Barry had to race around picking up the most dangerous ones before anymore damage could've been done. She had fallen directly on a jagged end of a round test tube and when she moved, the entire bottle had been crushed into tiny fragments. They had then gotten Barry to throw things at her really fast and everything that had been thrown had shattered on impact with her skin. Being bulletproof was probably the only manageable thing about this whole ordeal or at any rate it was the only thing that seemed useful.

"The wires iced up," Yasmeen said, "Maybe there just isn't a scientific explanation for this."

"A friend once told me that magic is just science that we don't understand." Caitlin told her as she tried to remove the wires from Yasmeen's arms. They were frozen solid.

"Can't I just break them off?"

Caitlin looked horrified at the mere suggestion. "These wires cost more than-"

She was abruptly cut off by a loud beeping noise that was coming from the computer. Cisco came in to check what the alert was for.

"Looks like we've got trouble at the jewellery store." Cisco says and he's already phoning Barry.

Seconds later Barry is suited up and speeding towards the jewellery store. In his earpiece he can hear Cisco warning him that they have no idea what to expect because they can't detect any signs of life just the silent alarm that was triggered. Barry bursts through the door and looks around, there are four bodies on the ground - the two clerks and two security guards. Their skin is chalk white and their eyes are bulging, judging from their blue lips it looks as though they were oxygen deprived.

"Whoever broke in is still in the vault I'm gonna check it out." Barry speaks into the earpiece.

"Hold on," Cisco mutters to himself as he punches something into the computer. "Barry you have to get out of there now!"

In the vault Barry is struggling to breathe and his suit is showing that he is severely oxygen deprived and is vital organs are beginning to shut down.

"We've got to do something!" Yasmeen says desperately and she turns and sprints into the rapidly forming shadows from the late afternoon sun and feels the now-familiar cold wave wash over her and she's suddenly in the vault. She too becomes choked and sees a woman with blonde hair come towards her. She blindly punches out and hears a sickly thud and she can instantly breathe again.

Barry lays unconscious on the floor and she runs to him. "Barry!" she shouts as she tries to shake him awake. A soft groan escapes his lips. Yasmeen breathes a sigh of relief and now glances around the vault. The blonde haired woman is also knocked unconscious and she is wearing a bracelet with a large sapphire. Who is she and why did she need to rob a jewellery store?

Two hours later the woman is locked in the pipeline (a prison for diabolical metahumans) and Barry is eating a hotdog. The last of fifteen. He'd explained to her that he had an accelerated metabolism and if he didn't eat this much he'd constantly be fainting. He also healed really quickly which explained why he recovered from being oxygen deprived unlike the four bodies at the entrance of the store. The police had now marked off the store and it was a homicide case.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the crime scene?" Yasmeen asked. "You're a forensic scientist for the CCPD aren't you?"

"Yeah. I'd better get going, Joe's definitely gonna need help with this one." He sighs and then changes into his ordinary clothes before speeding out to the crime scene.

Yasmeen is left staring at the falling papers and wondering if she should speak to the woman but decides against it and heads back to the hotel where she'd been staying for the past week. She picked up the phone and hesitantly dialled her house number. Maybe she didn't need to tell her parents what _exactly_ she was doing in Central City for so long and why she needed more time. She could tell them that she was going to spend the rest of the holidays here because she'd managed to get a job at Jitters and was helping Barry with police work. Yeah, they'd be happy with that.

"Assalamualaykum Mum, how's everyone at home?"

"Walaykumusalam Yasmeen, they driving me crazy now that they're all at home for the holidays! When are getting back?" Her mother sounds cheery and so Yasmeen takes this as a good sign that they'll be okay with her staying for a while in Central City.

"Actually I wanted to stay for a while longer because I've got a job at Jitters for the rest of the holidays. Will Dad be okay with that?" She asks quickly before her mother can properly register what she's saying. Yasmeen can hear her mother shouting her request to her father who is probably sitting and building Lego creatures with her youngest sister.

"Dad says its fine but you need to come back next week Thursday for your cousin's engagement."

"But all the other cousins aren't coming! I can't come and sit alone with all the aunties." Yasmeen is begging.

"It's your cousin's _engagement_ Yasmeen you _will_ be there. You'll see Aunty Sumayya and the rest will make sure that their kids are there. I want you to be there do you understand?" Her mother's tone is serious and firm.

Yasmeen sighs and defeat. "Okay I'll be there."

"Have fun and try and get a silver coloured shoe to match the outfit you're wearing, its blue. Asalamualaykum."

Her mother had hurriedly hung up meaning that one of her siblings was making a disaster of the house. At least her outfit was going to be blue. Ugh, let's hope it doesn't have bright beads all over it. Yasmeen puts down the phone and hops into the shower. It's been a long day; all she wants to do is shower and then sink into the fluffy pillows of the bed and forget about today.


	3. Chapter 3

So much for getting a good night's sleep. Yasmeen had barely closed her eyes when her cell phone started buzzing. She groaned and sat up tapping the answer button on the glowing screen. Barry's voice comes flooding out.

"Hey I'm sorry to bother you but the woman you knocked out earlier is awake and she said she'll talk but only if you're here."

All thoughts of sleep and being tired vanish from Yasmeen's mind. She quickly begins to dress in jeans and a shirt. "I'll be there in a few minutes." She says and hangs up and is already out the door with half-laced boots.

Ten minutes later the elevator doors had opened and Yasmeen sprinted down to the pipeline. Cisco is wearily eyeing the woman and she is simply standing straight and stroking her bracelet. However when she sees Yasmeen a faint smile forms on face.

"You're the one they call Dia'mond Oculos." She says.

"Diamond Eyes." Cisco translates.

"No I'm Yasmeen Adam. But the more important question is who are you?"

"I come from a dimension much like this one but there I was a queen." The bitterness in her voice is evident. "Now I am forced to live among _humans,_ they are such petty and violent creatures. They do not deserve this planet but an empire needs a strong foundation and human bones shall be perfect."

Yasmeen rolls her eyes. "You sound positively delusional. Where were you when the explosion happened?"

"I am from the 7th dimension. What explosion are you speaking of?"

Yasmeen stared at the woman but she seemed to honestly believe in what she was saying. "What do you mean I'm the one called Diamond Eyes?"

"You are much like Kal-El of Krypton. The last of your people sent to earth in a desperate attempt to save them and you shall but I fear that event shall change the very fabric of reality."

Who the hell was Kal-El? What was this woman talking about? Yasmeen had questions swimming in her head but asked only what she knew Barry needed to know. "Why did you break into the jewellery store?"

"For this." She said and held up her arm with the bracelet. The sapphire had started to glow and the woman's form wavered and then a violet ring formed around her and she was gone. The empty glass box seemed to mock Cisco and Yasmeen.

"She just ... disappeared?" Barry is trying to wrap his head around the idea that the jewellery in Central City can zap people out of glass boxes or for that matter, prison cells. "That sapphire works kind of like the Green Lantern's ring."

"Do you think maybe he'd know who that woman was?" Yasmeen asked uneasily because the woman's words were ringing in her ears. 'You are much like Kal-El of Krypton' seemed to be playing on a loop in her head. She needed to know what all of that had meant and why the woman had called her 'Diamond Eyes'.

Barry shrugged helplessly. "Even if he did he's all the way in Coast City and we've got quite a bit on our plate as it is I don't think we should be chasing aliens that claim they're from another dimension."

Yasmeen nodded. Aside from Cisco no one else knew what the woman had told her and she didn't feel up to trying to tell it to Barry just as yet especially since he thought it was a bad idea to track down the sapphire bracelet wearing rouge that had escaped. She bid him goodnight and was going to head back to the hotel when she decided to stop at the alley where she had been taking pictures the night the particle accelerator went haywire. The moon was large and bright tonight and threw ghostly shadows across the sidewalk as she got out of her car and walked to the alley. It was behind the building that Barry had been staying in before he found himself a new apartment. The new apartment wasn't any bigger but it was in a better part of town.

Broken glass shards lay strewn all over the dull concrete and Yasmeen was careful to walk around them. She reached the exact spot where she had been standing when it had started to rain and she had told herself to go inside but then decided that the falling drops would add a more dramatic flair to the photographs she needed for Creative Arts and so she snapped away, taking photograph after photograph of the decrepit alley. Then an invisible force had slammed into her and pushed her back about ten centimetres. She'd thought that it had been wind from the freak storm and took a couple more pictures and then went inside only to receive a phone call from Iris who was in tears as she told Yasmeen that Barry was in a coma because he had been struck by lightning. Yasmeen rushed to the hospital and spent the next three days with Iris and Joe at Barry's bedside and then had went home sorrowfully because he'd been transferred to S.T.A.R. Labs and they were no closer than the hospital in trying to find out what Barry's outcome would be.

Looking back on it she never would have thought that he'd have super-speed and be saving the citizens of Central City and yet here they were, with her asking for help on how to control time-travel through shadows. Yasmeen realized how ridiculous she would sound saying it out loud and quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts. She inspected the alley thoroughly looking in every crevice twice but still couldn't find anything that might link her abilities to that place. A shadow fluttered across her path.

"Is someone there?" She called, with her voice bouncing off the brick walls around her. The wind blew in and rustled a few plastic bags that were laying on the ground. She shivered involuntarily and then quickly walked back to her car. Yasmeen was determined to search for clues but it was late and even with her new abilities she didn't want to stick around here because who knew what lurked around this place.

A man who was leaning casually on the wall further down the alley smiled. He had a metallic stick in his hand that was gold in colour which he quickly pushed into his coat pocket and then willed the winds to carry him back to the abandoned building that he was using as a hideout. He had taken an interest in this girl because for the past week she was seen everywhere with The Flash. The girl wasn't of much use but her connection to The Flash would certainly come in handy.


	4. Chapter 4

"How about this one?" Iris asked as she held up yet another silver coloured heel. Yasmeen's cousin's engagement was in two days and she still hadn't found a shoe. She was supposed to leave this afternoon to head back to New York but she needed to buy a shoe for the occasion and would have to leave in the evening as seeing that she had already been to five shops and couldn't find a shoe to her liking. Being naturally tall she had ruled out high heels but looking at what was left to choose from she quickly changed her mind.

"It's too ..." Yasmeen trailed off. The shoe had intricate bead work that glinted in the sunlight and was only a kitten heel.

"If you tell me shiny I'm going to phone your mother and buy a shoe based on _her_ description." Iris threatened. Yasmeen sighed and tried on the shoe. It actually looked really nice and paired with the blue hijab and silver head-band that she had from last Eid it would look stunning.

"Okay I'll take it," she relented, "But it is too shiny."

Iris rolled her eyes and laughed. "C'mon let's go and get a cup of coffee."

Yasmeen paid for the shoes and then walked with Iris to Jitters. That place had become like a second home considering how much of time they all spent there. They walked to the counter to get take-away cups when Linda Park walked in. Linda worked with Iris (Iris had gotten recognised by the Central City Picture News for her blog on 'The Streak' and they'd offered her a job to keep writing about him so she no longer waitressed at Jitters) and was majorly into Barry but it didn't pan out too well because Barry was majorly into Iris which he profusely denied every time someone mentioned it and Iris had said there was no way that she was in love with Barry and well, it was just a confusing mess.

"Hello Iris." Linda greeted.

"Hey Linda," Iris replied cheerfully, "Got off early?"

"I wish, just picking up some coffee and then I have to head back."

Their lattes were done so Yasmeen paid and Iris waved goodbye to Linda as the two of them headed out the door and Linda to the counter.

"She seemed so perfect for Barry." Iris said wistfully. Yasmeen opened her mouth to say something but then decided against it. It'd only stir up trouble reminding Iris who Barry was really in love with. She glanced at her phone screen and gasped. It was already 5:30, she'd better get going. Yasmeen greeted Iris and then went back to the hotel to pick up her bag and car and by 6 she was on the road with home set as her destination.

The bright white tent outside the house was packed with people. Food platters lined the tables and the aromas of all the sweetmeats were beginning to give Yasmeen a headache. She laughed as her niece, a tiny two year old, came running with chocolates stuffed in all her pockets and more still in her hands. Yasmeen scooped her up and went to the kitchen. The noise in the kitchen was considerably less and here you could eat off the platters without her mother giving her a look of contempt for dropping crumbs of Bar-One cake on her outfit and for not using a plate.

"What're you up to this holidays?" Her cousin had asked when she went to hug her and wish her and her fiancé everything of the best.

"I've got a job at Central City's Jitters." Yasmeen told her with her heart sinking because she knew why Aaliyah was asking.

"Oh," Aaliyah sounded disappointed, "I thought we'd be able to catch up on all your school stories and do some shopping for the wedding."

Yasmeen had simply smiled but in her head she was screaming with rage. As much as she wanted to spend time with her cousin before the wedding and before Aaliyah moved all the way to _Australia,_ she knew that she had to go back to Central City to learn more about controlling her abilities. Honestly speaking there wasn't much to learn but she desperately needed to know what the blonde woman's (Cisco had decided to nickname her Sapphire because of her bracelet) words had meant.

She looked out the kitchen window as she set her niece down on a chair by the table. The sky that had been a brilliant blue with small white clouds drifting about had now turned a horrific grey and the wind had definitely picked up. Women began to stream into the kitchen and the men moved to the lounge area through the front door. There was a loud crackle of thunder and lightning flashed as icy drops began to pour down. Where on earth had a storm come from? Yasmeen thought that she saw a man in a dark navy coat in the middle of the storm clouds but that was impossible.

The storm lasted for the next two hours and the house had grown increasingly hot and noisy. All the younger children disappeared into the TV room and the slightly older girls into one of the rooms to sit and talk. Yasmeen and Razeen (they were the only two cousins that were the same age) had filled plates with sweet things and grabbed cans of cola and went to sit in their Uncle Ahmed's study.

The study smelled of books, old and new alike and was the only quiet place in the house. "How was your report?" She asked as she took a bite of baklava.

"It wasn't exactly gold but it'll do." He replied.

She rolled her eyes at him. Razeen wanted to become an engineer and worked really hard at getting perfect results. His 'not exactly gold' would make her report look as though she never attended classes. "What're you doing up in Central City anyway?" He asked.

"Just needed a break from all this." Yasmeen replied shrugging.

"So you get a job for the next four weeks in a completely different city." The sarcasm is dripping off his words.

She just downed the rest of her cola and crumpled the thin aluminium can in her hand. "Woah! Getting strong aren't we?" Razeen kidded.

"Oh shut up," she shot back, "What's your plans for the holidays?"

"Maybe I'll follow you up to Central," He said grinning mysteriously, "Just to make sure that you are working and not sneaking off to visit some boyfriend for the next four weeks."

Just then more thunder rambled on in a continuous peal and the house felt as though it was shaking. Yasmeen closed her eyes and prayed that ceiling wasn't about to fall down. When she looked up the ceiling was still intact but the power had tripped. "Come on," she felt Razeen tug at her wrist, "They're gonna need us to either check why it went out or start taking out the gas stoves."

The women were frantic because now there with no electricity how on earth was anyone going to eat warm food? Yasmeen sighed and grabbed a torch and followed Razeen outside to an enormous black box where they'd be able to diagnose what the problem was. The rain had slowed but just barely and even with raincoats and umbrellas they were soaked in a matter of minutes. Razeen forced open the metal door and began flipping all the switches back to the 'ON' position. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye Yasmeen saw a bright streak coming towards the box and she yelled at Razeen to get down just as it struck the box and lit it up like a firecracker.


	5. Chapter 5

Yasmeen had jumped in front of Razeen so any incoming fragments had bounced off her back. She then sat up and looked around in a daze staring at the raindrops until Razeen had sat up and shaken her.

"What the hell just happened?" He couldn't hide the fear in his voice.

She just looked at him and blinked and there, in the slight distance behind his head was the man she had seen earlier- the one in the navy blue coat that had been inside the storm cloud. Yasmeen scrambled to her feet and sprinted to where he stood in the distance. Her cousin stared after her as though she had completely lost her mind. He looked around him at the strewn metal fragments and wondered how on earth none of the pieces had hit him or Yasmeen. Razeen stood up and hurried inside he would look for Yasmeen as soon as he changed into drier clothing.

Yasmeen could feel the drops of rain on her face like pins of ice and yet she ran toward the man. Well she didn't exactly run. The silver shoes that had been so beautiful only moments ago were now flecked with mud and kept slipping off her wet feet making it difficult to hurry across the yard and street to where he stood. Thank god she was wearing contacts so the problem of fogging up glasses wasn't there. The man stood on the curb and smiled coldly. She stopped short. What had she been thinking? She was going to run up to the man and ... what? She gave him a long look so as to remember his features then spun on her heel and rushed back to the house.

Now dry and warm sitting by a gas heater Yasmeen deliberated about whether to tell Razeen what she had become or not. When she had walked into the house he looked freaked out and so she just walked past him and into the bathroom to try and salvage her appearance. Perhaps telling him would put her mind at ease because as far as she knew she didn't have any enemies and he needed an explanation as to why the fragments hadn't harmed her. It surely hadn't escaped his notice and she just couldn't lie to her closest cousin. Yasmeen got up and walked to the study.

"You okay?" She asked him cautiously.

"I'm fine are you-" He was cut off abruptly as Yasmeen started to tell him about some particle accelerator explosion in Central City and how it had caused people to have all sorts of odd abilities. She then took a deep breath and told him that she had been in Central City that night and she had also been affected.

"What? What do you mean you were affected?"

Yasmeen explains the super-strength and bulletproof skin but leaves out the shadow travelling because Razeen looks as though he might faint from disbelief. She also tells him that she's getting help from S.T.A.R. Labs.

"So you're spending the holidays in Central City because you can crush iron if you grip it?"

"Yeah."

His face slowly lights up with a grin. "That's freaking amazing. Do you have any idea how cool this is?"

His enthusiasm reminds Yasmeen of Cisco and that's why she decides to tell him: "Maybe you can stop by in Central City for day visits or something. You know when you're not busy with extra classes and that."

Razeen just nods. He had gotten over the shock but is still staring at her in amazement. "It's rude to stare." She tells him but her tone is light-hearted. He mumbles something under his breath and then asks if she's hungry. Yasmeen shrugs and so they head to the kitchen.

A day later and Yasmeen is back in Central City helping Barry in his lab. She hadn't forgotten the freak storm or strange man but she decided that it could wait until later. She hefted another box from the floor and slid it on to the top shelf with the others.

"This is why I love having you around."

"Why?" inquired Yasmeen, "Because you wouldn't know where anything was unless I or Iris cleared this place as often as we do?"

"Well that and there isn't anyone to talk to since Iris got that job at Central City Picture News." Barry hadn't been too keen on Iris's new job but that was because she was writing about him as 'The Streak' and it was putting her on the radar for all sorts of nasties who thought that she knew who The Streak was. Joe had made Barry promise not to tell Iris and it killed him but he knew that keeping her in the dark was best for everyone.

"Anything cool happen when I was gone?"

"Nope, in fact it's been really quiet."

"Actually I'm not too sure about that." Yasmeen then explained everything that had happened back in New York all the while drawing on a scrap piece of paper. When she was done she showed Barry the drawing of the man. His eyes widened in recognition and surprise.

"That's Mark Mardon, I thought he died." Barry explained that Mark and his brother Clyde were on the run after some robberies and had taken off in a small plane but then the explosion happened and the plane blew up. A few weeks ago Clyde had come back with the ability to control wind and water vapour but had been killed. It was by some miracle that Mark had survived and now he was back in town. Barry felt sure that Mark was back because he had heard of his brother's death and had come to exact revenge on whoever had caused it.

After hearing all that she did on Mark Mardon, Yasmeen had hurriedly left the CCPD to look for Joe. The secretary at the front had told her that Joe and Eddie had left only minutes ago to check out suspicious activity in Lawrence Hills. Barry wouldn't tell her who had killed Clyde Mardon but Joe would definitely know. Whoever killed him was in major danger.

Barry zoomed out of his lab and all the way down to Lawrence Hills. He prayed with all his heart that he wasn't too late. Clyde's death had been an accident and Joe certainly didn't deserve whatever Mark had planned. Barry arrived with seconds to spare. Eddie was knocked out cold in the corner of what had once been a huge part of the fertilizer corporation LexCorp but was now in disuse. Droplets of water were steadily forming into icicles that were aimed at Joe, Barry rushed forward and threw Mark against a huge metal drum - the drum clanged and Mark crumpled to the floor. With his concentration lost the icicles dropped and rolled away. Joe looked confused as he glanced around the enormous place.

"Barry ..." Joe shook his head as if to clear it but got woozy and passed out. Barry picked up Joe and raced to S.T.A.R. Labs, once he knew the detective was in good hands he went back to grab Eddie who was already groaning as he gained consciousness. The silent humming of a car could be heard passing the fertilizer warehouse and Barry quickly left.

Yasmeen thought that she had seen unnatural mist coming from one of these warehouses but after driving around for fifteen minutes and finding no sign of Mark or Joe and Eddie she decided to head back to the CCPD. As she drove out of Lawrence Hills Barry zoomed in one last time to grab Mark Mardon and take him down to the pipeline.

Yasmeen decided to call it a night at about half eight. When she had gotten back to the lab Barry was nowhere to be seen and so she just continued stacking boxes and putting files in order of importance but by a quarter past eight Barry still hadn't come back and while Yasmeen was concerned she was also extremely tired and so she packed up the last of the papers and closed up the lab and went straight to the hotel. She swung the room door open and standing in front of the floor length mirror was a man wearing a black top hat and carrying a cane that was topped with a bleached white miniature skull. The cane was pure black and seemed to be calling out to her. The man smiled widely, but it was not a pleasant smile.

"I wondered when you'd be in Miss Adam."


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing that would usually go through a normal person's mind was: Run. Somehow this didn't apply to Yasmeen who just sighed wearily before flopping down on the bed. She just sat there for a few minutes before kicking off her boots and folding her feet beneath her.

"Uhh ... I have no idea who you are?"

"I am to be your teacher. You may call me Shade." The man responded.

"My teacher? How'd you find me?"

"That is not of much concern. Follow me." He said abruptly before swinging the door open and marching out. Curiosity gets the better of Yasmeen and she pulled her shoes on and followed him down the carpeted corridor. He walked briskly to the terracotta coloured door which leads to a flight of stairs which leads to the hotel roof. By the time Yasmeen made it to the door he is nowhere to be seen but she climbed the stairs anyway.

The night air smells metallic and there is a cool breeze as she makes it to the top. She closed the door and walks to one of the many benches that are placed around, uncertain of what she should do. She decides to sit and then suddenly out of the shadows the man appears again.

"When they said you were unaware of your abilities I had simply thought it meant that you didn't know how to use them," Shade mutters, "Not that you have no idea what they are in the first place."

"They?" Yasmeen asks quizzically.

The man sighed and puts his cane down on the bench beside Yasmeen. The cane is pure black and seems to be made of liquid as Yasmeen puts a tentative hand forward to touch it. Just before her fingers can skim the surface it dissolves and she pulls her hand back but just as quickly it reappears as though it had never moved. She looks questioningly at the man who then picks up the cane and fades into the shadows.  
"Hello?" She calls. The man appears behind her.  
"Run." He commands as he tapped her shoulder with the cane. A feeling that is utterly painful, like being stabbed with a frozen stalactite, passes through her body and she jerks back involuntarily.

"Run." He says again and this time she breaks into a sprint and reaches the other end of the roof. Shade then twists the top of the cane and a black vapour leeches from the mouth of the skull and engulfs Yasmeen. She automatically closed her mouth and held her breath but the black vapour settles around her and on her skin in a glittery form. Yasmeen lifts her arms out in front of her to inspect them.

"That will help you to have a firmer grip on the shadows you run through."

"Are you like me?" She questions.

"Very much so young lady. Do not pay heed to what the jewel thief had told you." Shade says and his eyes flash murderously. Yasmeen's curiosity is bubbling up but she pushes it down and tries to focus on the training advice that Shade is giving her. Four hours later she is truly drained of all energy but has certainly got a grip on her new abilities. Shade notices how tired she is and tells her that they will continue with these lessons another night and then melts into the shadows leaving Yasmeen standing alone on the roof with only the wind whistling past her.

At eleven the next morning Yasmeen is trying hard to pay attention to Cisco as he rambles on about some new laser beam that can turn any object into a puddle of goo within seconds. She had decided not to tell anyone about Shade or the fact that there was someone else out there that had abilities like her and it seemed as though he had them for quite some time. Caitlin was out doing some research at a facility in Starling City so Cisco had phoned Yasmeen to ask if she minded helping in the lab today. Not wanting to be rude she had agreed to help but now was slightly regretting it. Cisco waved a hand in front of her face.

"Yeah?" She said suddenly pulling to attention once again.

"I asked where you wanna go for lunch today. Are you okay? You seem really distracted today."

"I'm fine, just a bit worried about how life is going to be when I have to go back home." Yasmeen admits.

"You'll do fine; I promise that we'll find something useful that'll help you before you have to leave." Cisco sounds very sure and Yasmeen smiles gratefully. Just then a gust of wind hits them and Barry stands there holding a folder.

"You guys aren't going to believe what I've found this is really important." He says as he opens the folder about halfway and comes over to show them. The page that he opened to has an enormous title that reads 'Shadow travel found to be possible'. The page looks really ancient and Yasmeen notices a date on the upper right hand corner.

"1784?!" She exclaims in disbelief.

"Do you think it's somehow possible that this guy is still alive?" Barry asks as he points to the picture below the article which shows a group of men in their late thirties all wearing white lab coats and smiling widely. The man that he's pointing to has a very familiar look in his eyes and with a start Yasmeen realizes that it's Shade, the only one not wearing a lab coat but instead is holding the cane that she had seen the night before.

"That is highly unlikely. Unless ... he found a way to stop ageing." Cisco answers.

"Even if he was still alive how would we find him?" Yasmeen asks cautiously. "And I mean he'd be well over 200 years old. Are we honestly thinking that he's alive?"

"She's probably right." Cisco tells Barry, who sighs with disappointment and frustration. A warning buzzer goes off and they all turn to the computer screens. It flashes red and Barry is in his suit and zooming off before Cisco and Yasmeen can even properly register what they're seeing on the screen. A man has hostages shackled up in the centre of a burning room and has a dangerous look plastered on his face. He had deliberately chosen the room with the most cameras so that they would see all of this. He wears a dark hooded jacket and when he turns to face the camera Yasmeen feels her heart leap into her throat. It's the Arrow and he looks like he's out for blood.


	7. Chapter 7

Felicity Smoak smiled gratefully at Caitlin as she closed the test tubes of unidentified matter that Caitlin would take to S.T.A.R. Labs to be analysed. It was the third time in the past month that Oliver Queen and his team had needed something or the other from Central City but Caitlin was always ready to help because they'd been more than ready to make the necessary arrangements for herself, Cisco and Dr Wells to stay at the branch of S.T.A.R. Labs when the one in Central had been destroyed.

"How's Barry been doing?" Felicity asked as Caitlin carefully packed the tubes into a metal case. It had been a while since she had last seen Barry and he had seemed to be doing excellently after the explosion and finding out that he had super-speed.

"He's doing well. Although... he has a friend from New York that was in Central the night of the explosion and seemed to have gained some weird new abilities. She can use shadows to travel. And not just 5 feet across a room but through time itself. It's worrying him a lot that we won't be able to help her understand it but he doesn't talk about it that much with any of us."

Felicity's eyes held understanding but she didn't say anything. Her cell phone let off a shrill ring and she glanced at the number her eyes widening in surprise. "It's Cisco."

Caitlin looked confused but then her usual look of concern and worry came over her face as Felicity answered the phone. Felicity's face held a confused look and then crumpled with shock and then she ended the call and turned to Caitlin. "Cisco says it's an emergency apparently Oliver is in Central and is holding hostages."

"What?" Caitlin asked.

"I am just as confused as you are but I'm sure he knows what he's doing but I think we should head down there anyway."

Caitlin nodded and grabbed the metal case as they both headed down to Caitlin's car.

Meanwhile back at S.T.A.R. Labs Yasmeen was losing an argument with both Cisco and Dr Wells. They had refused her request to follow Barry or to at least get to the storage room where the Arrow was holding hostages. Cisco felt sure that there was something else going on and that there was a metahuman explanation tied to the Arrow's behaviour. No one had told Yasmeen the Arrow's real identity which is why she couldn't understand why they refused to just let the cops take him out. She groaned in frustration and just gave up with Cisco and Dr Wells.

"If I can't be of use here I might as well just head out." She said angrily and left hoping that Shade would be back at the hotel.

"I hope she doesn't do something stupid." Cisco muttered as he worked on giving Barry instructions on how to break into the room without compromising the lives of the hostages.

"Hope who doesn't do anything stupid?" Barry asked as he rounded a corner and stopped to survey the area. Cisco glanced at Dr Wells who shook his head to indicate that they shouldn't worry Barry with this.

"It's nothing," Cisco said, "You need to go in through the front door he's not expecting you to."

"Are you sure that he doesn't have any back up with him?" Barry didn't want to be surprised with a gunshot from Diggle or a couple of arrows in the neck from Roy. He got the okay from Cisco and then as silently as possible he sped through the front door and into a guy who took off his tinted glasses and looked Barry in the eyes causing them to glow red. Barry pushed him off and had the same murderous look on his face that Oliver had, he turned away from the man and sped into the room of civilians.

Yasmeen slammed her room door shut and sat down on the bed miserably. They would never trust her to help. As long as they didn't understand her abilities she would be treated like the metahumans down in the pipeline except she was above ground and it sucked not to be able to help. She took out her phone and saw a text from Razeen asking if it'd be okay if he came down in three days time because he'd managed to catch a break from his professors but it was only for a half day. She texted him back that it would be great and had just tapped send when the curtains rustled next to her and she dropped her phone on the bed and immediately raised her arms in a defensive position.

"That's the worst type of defence I have ever seen." Shade's voice was dark. Well he wasn't the only one having a bad day.

Yasmeen whirled to face him and glared her fiery temper evident in her eyes. "Then teach me something useful."

"Concentrate on the shadows; they can do a lot for you."

Yasmeen took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She reached deep into her mind and pulled into the recesses, imagining all the shadows that she had ever seen. She began playing with them in her head, bending and manipulating them- turning it into a dome around her, a bunch of sharp points that stabbed in every direction and a pair of wings. As she continued unaware that the images were real around her, Shade watched with a glint of contentment in his eyes. He found the wings particularly intriguing. They were beautiful with delicate folds making feathers all the way down just like the ones that were described in Greek books- Icarus's wings. With enough practise this girl was going to be deadly.

"We need to go to the roof." Shade interrupted her train of thought and Yasmeen opened her eyes.

Unlike the previous time, it was late afternoon and the sunlight glinted off the skyscraper's roof making sharp points of light over the benches. Shade made her repeat what she done only minutes ago but this time he requested that she keep her eyes open. Yasmeen gasped in wonder as the inky liquid-like shadows bent at her will. He told her to create the wings and she did looking at them spread out on either side in fascination.

"Can they carry me?" She asked.

"They will but you must remain focussed on them or else they will dissolve."

Yasmeen smiled and then stepped to the edge of the roof. She dived straight down without giving it too much thought and felt the most incredible rush. She watched as the ground came closer and closer before she pulled up and did a spin before hurtling back to the top. Her feet softly touched the concrete and she turned to Shade with the biggest smile on her face.

"Now flying could be fun." She said as she watched the wings fade away. She might not have been able to handle super-strength but this was definitely something that she could learn to control.

Cisco caught a quick glimpse of the man with the tinted glasses from the camera that he had installed in Barry's suit, right in the middle of the lightning bolt. He ran the image through a facial recognition scan and a name popped up: Roy G Bivolo. He had a hospital record that showed he'd stayed in hospital for two weeks after the explosion. Cisco heard the familiar ding of the opening elevator doors and heard Caitlin's voice and another voice that he didn't recognize. Caitlin and Felicity walked in as Cisco tapped into the room with the hostage's camera. Oliver and Barry looked ready to rip each other's throats out and Bivolo stood in a doorway grinning. One of the hostages looked directly into the camera and pulled a few faces; first smiling then sad and then she glared and barred her teeth and held this expression for a few seconds longer. Then she looked to Bivolo standing in the doorway.

"I think she's trying to tell us that the guy in the doorway can control emotions." Caitlin said suddenly as they all stared at the screen.

"Why's he doing this?" Felicity asked.

"I fear we might not find out soon enough." Dr Wells said as he quickly typed something into the computer. "This man was treated for eye damage, doctors had some unexplained events at the hospital for his duration there; nurses lashing out dangerously at patients and then snapping out of their rage but not remembering anything of what they had done."

Cisco's mind was spinning as he tried to think of how Bivolo could be doing this and how to counter-act it. The video feed showed Oliver drawing his bow but Bivolo was nowhere to be seen. Another beep went off and Felicity identified it. "There's a robbery happening at Central City National. The police will be there in about 3 minutes." She said.

The metahumans had certainly picked a day to be busy. Nobody said it but they really needed extra help and yet both Cisco and Caitlin couldn't bring themselves to phone Yasmeen. As they sat deliberating their problem they noticed that it was Bivolo that was robbing the bank and the guards outside were arguing very animatedly until one of them punched the other in the face. They needed a solution and fast.


	8. Chapter 8

How on earth were they going to find a solution when they didn't even know how Bivolo's abilities worked? Just then Dr Wells wheeled in with a grim expression on his face.

"I knew I recognized the name Bivolo. He used to work as a psychologist back in Metropolis."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Cisco asked growing impatient.

"He was constantly in contact with people whose emotions were too much for them to handle. Caitlin, which colour represents anger?" Dr Wells asked as he opened a glass cabinet and began assembling huge spotlights.

"Red, but-" Caitlin trailed off as what Dr Wells was saying all began to make sense. "Are you saying that if we can get multi-coloured light to shine directly at Barry and Oliver's eyes we can snap them out of their rage?"

Dr Wells nodded. "The only problem is actually getting the light to their eyes."

"I think I can help with that." Felicity said as she took out her phone and quickly typed something and hit the send button. Roy and Diggle would be here any minute and she had a pretty good idea of how they'd be able to hold both Barry and Oliver down.

Yasmeen had gone back to her room and showered and was now sitting on the edge of the bed contemplating her new-found skill. Maybe she just needed to accept her new abilities and not try to figure out what they were and just go with it. She was still unsure of what Sapphire had said about her being like Kal-El, whoever that was. As Yasmeen sat there despondently not knowing what to feel there was a slight knock at the door. She slowly crept towards the door and hesitantly held the shiny silver doorknob. The knock came louder now and Yasmeen jumped back involuntarily as she tried to get her heart to stop beating so crazily. Honestly, a murderer wouldn't knock first, she chided herself. She opened the door and saw none other than Razeen.  
"You're not supposed to be here until Wednesday!" Surprise coloured her every word.

"You'd think that the expression on your face should be excitement." He was hurt and he couldn't hide it.

"I'm sorry; it's just been a very long day."

"It's all right I actually just need sleep right now too. I'm few rooms down just thought I would pop in to say hi and that I got here earlier than expected." And with that Razeen turned and was already halfway down the corridor before Yasmeen could even tell him to come in for a few minutes.

Well decorum wasn't top priority right now she was exhausted and over-thinking a lot, sleep would the best thing right now.

Meanwhile back at S.T.A.R. Labs Felicity and Cisco were talking Roy and Diggle through a plan of attack. The first thing that needed to be done without question was to get all the civilians out. After that it was a basic game of cat and mouse to try and draw Barry and Oliver outside where Dr Wells would be waiting with the spotlights. Basic game with a few lethal weapons involved but hopefully not too many hiccups along the way.

"Anytime now Roy." Felicity muttered as she anxiously watched Oliver and Diggle tackle each other.

Right on time Roy jumped in and let off a few fire crackers which caused a big enough distraction for Diggle to force both Barry and Oliver out of the door and into the waiting lights. Their pupils dilated and then they were back to normal, stumbling as they came off their rage induced high.

The next morning a very embarrassed and sheepish Barry and Oliver exchanged brief goodbyes before Oliver and his team headed back to Starling. Neither knew it then but it would be a very long time before they saw each other again.

In the meantime Yasmeen and Razeen were picking up coffee from Jitters and she was then to take him to S.T.A.R. Labs as seeing that there was nothing else for them to do. The minute they stepped out of the elevator Cisco was whirling around and the story of what had happened the night before was involuntarily spilled before her realized that Yasmeen had someone with her. Brief introductions were made and soon Cisco and Razeen were talking about all kinds of science phenomena at which point Yasmeen rolled her eyes and decided that she'd leave the two of them alone before she had to listen to one more theory on fourth dimensional space.

Yasmeen decided to make her way down to the metahuman prison to see if she could find out from any of the prisoners information on Shade. Unfortunately the endeavor turned out fruitless and she headed back upstairs with a heavy heart. Yes, Shade was a great teacher but honestly, the cloak of mystery he wrapped around himself was unsettling and the names that Sapphire had mentioned still bounced around Yasmeen's head, a constant reminder that she still had no answers and to some extent, no real purpose.

There was only three days of the holidays left and while Cisco and Caitlin had worked tirelessly to try and find a manageable way for Yasmeen to control her powers they hadn't gotten very far. Her training with Shade had left her a lot more aware of what to do and how not to be zapping through the shadow world while on her jogs during the mandatory PE class. Four more metahumas had been caught in the past two weeks and Central City was looking safer. Yasmeen decided that she would head back to New York, use the couple of days before school started to get herself into a routine.

"I'll be back soon, I promise. I know you probably don't want to hear that but I really need to know what exactly the shadow world is. And hey, maybe next time Barry'll even let me come with to take down a few metahumans." Yasmeen felt sad to be leaving but also relief, she'd be able to try and get a grip on this on her own, without constant testing. Maybe she'd even find a purpose for her supposedly useless powers.

"Hopefully we get the metahuman problem sorted out soon but you're always welcome here. We'll see you soon." Caitlin told her as Yasmeen climbed onto the train; she waved cheerfully as she watched the train pull away. That kid was gonna be okay, she just knew it.

Three hours later as Barry was trying on yet another suit that Cisco had designed his phone rang and the glowing screen identified the call as Yasmeen.

"Missing me already?" He asked. The smile in his voice was met with confusion from the other end of the line. "I'm sorry, is this Barry Allen? There's been an accident and this was the emergency number on this phone. The train that your friend was on was in a collision and she's being rushed to New York General, I don't mean to worry you but it isn't looking good. My name is Daisy, I'm one of the emergency medics, please get here as soon as you can."

Barry quickly relayed the message to Cisco, Caitlin and Dr Wells. As he zoomed toward New York he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Yasmeen, who was made of an indestructible material, was injured. What kind of a force would be required to hurt her? And who would try such a thing?


End file.
